Plans to develop the 20,000-square-foot parking lot parcel at 321 Florida Street, between 16th and 17th Streets in the Mission, are in the works. And as envisioned, over 150 units of housing could rise on the site.

While the parcel is only zoned for development up to 68 feet, or roughly 7 stories, in height, the project team is positioning to invoke California’s Density Bonus Program to develop a 9-story building, with 151 units of housing (28 of which would be offered at below market rates) over 1,600 square feet of retail space and a basement garage for 64 cars and 113 bikes.

If I had to guess, the biggest reason is probably because HOME-SF requires Conditional Use. That’s a lot of uncertainty added and months to the timeline in the best case. HOME-SF also requires affordability percentages that can be kind of a tough ask for those medium-sized projects. Meanwhile, a 25+ unit project can qualify for the state density bonus while barely exceeding the minimum requirement, because San Francisco’s base inclusionary rate is so high.

In zoning districts such as this one — where there are no density limitations — the State Law makes more sense.
In zoning districts with density controls, the HOME-SF program could make more sense. They’ve recently updated/reformed the HOME-SF program, but I believe, especially in this era of escalating construction costs — that it’s below-market-rate percentages are still too high.